It is known that aged blue cheese is subject to a relatively short refrigerated shelf-life of on the order of two to three weeks. This is primarily due to the presence of high levels of viable mold, yeast and bacteria in and/or on the surface of the cheese. While pasteurized processing of cheese such as cheddar is a common practice to yield a cheese with a low microbial count and extended shelf-life, preparation of pasteurized processed blue cheese has not been accomplished because the heat processing causes bitter off-flavors to develop.
One approach to this problem is set out in Noznick et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,097,950. There, blue cheese is mixed with an emulsifier in water at about a 40% solids level and heated to emulsify and pasteurize the cheese. The emulsion is then spray-dried. The patent states that the final product is devoid of off-flavors. However, it is known that spray-dried products lose a substantial amount of their volatiles and consequently the final product does not possess the odor and flavor of the original blue cheese. In addition, such spray-dried product does not have the consistency and body of the original blue cheese.